The White Sox have strung together three wins, and suddenly the Twins, fresh off selling anything not nailed down, are stumbling at 3-7 over their last ten. Chicago is treading water at 5-5, but a win tonight snags the series before tomorrow’s finale. Is it safe to say the Good Guys are sniffing a little momentum? Check back after the game, when I’ll probably be actively choking on those words.
Yoendrys Gómez gets his fifth crack at it for the Sox since coming up from Charlotte in August. The first
three outings? Not so bad. The last one, though, was a Bronx beatdown: five runs (four earned) in four innings, with Trent Grisham’s grand slam as the exclamation point in a 10-2 drubbing. The Yankees scooped up Gómez as a teenager back in 2016, and now he’s out here throwing seven different pitches, though he leans on the four-seamer, sweeper, curve, and sinker. He’s not exactly a strikeout machine with a 26.2 CSW%, but hitters are only managing a .230 average off him, so he’s not a pushover either.
Here’s how manager Rocco Daniel Baldelli sets the Twins up to go after Gómez.
On the other side of the diamond, Zebby Matthews takes the ball for the Twins. He’s sitting at 4-4 with a 5.06 ERA and a WHIP that’s flirting with 1.5 over a dozen games. Minnesota called him up in May, then he promptly hit the IL in June with a cranky right shoulder. Since coming back, it’s been a coin flip every time out. Matthews offers six pitches, but primarily sticks to the four-seamer, slider, and cutter. Opponents are teeing off at a .290 clip, but he does rack up the strikeouts at 10.74 per nine. The Good Guys’ red-hot offense might feast, but don’t be shocked if they whiff a bunch, too.
Skipper Will Venable pencils in the lineup with his eyes on a fourth straight W for Chicago.
Catch all the action on CHSN at 6:40 p.m. CST, now available on Comcast, DIRECTV, and Fubo. If TV’s not an option, let Len Kasper and Darin Jackson bring the game to life on ESPN 1000.
